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Leicester City 0-2 Everton

Davies was similarly impressive in his most recent previous outing, although that came in a much different situation with Everton heading towards a 5-0 defeat at Chelsea last month.

“For young players, normally you need to give them a comfortable situation (in which to come on),” said Koeman.

“Everybody knows it's difficult for young players to make the breakthrough into the first team.

“He's already come on against Chelsea, but it was a really disappointing result at that moment.

“Here, though, we were 1-0 up and he was the strong player that we needed in midfield.

“That's what we needed at that time in the game.”

Mason Holgate and Tom Davies celebrate at The King Power Stadium on December 26, 2016

Koeman also saluted Lukaku, who scored the clinching goal – his 10 strike of the season – in injury time after Kevin Mirallas had put Everton ahead six minutes after the interval.

“That's one of his big qualities,” said the Blues boss of the striker's solo effort.

“It's a one against one situation, he is strong, he is fast and if he gets that chance of being one against one with the goalkeeper, normally he will score.

“The message to him at half-time was to tell him that sometimes he runs too much (out wide) and that he needed to stay up front, stay between the two centre-backs because when we have crosses, he needs to be in the box.

“He's that type of striker who can score from crosses. You need to be in the box to do that. Mirallas and Lennon are different players.”